Sunset
by Royalty Over Reality
Summary: "I found her on the roof with a smile playing on her face." Caina one-shot set in Lies, right before they set off to the island. Told from Caine's point of view. Rated T because it mentions suicide. I don't own Gone, but if you'd like to give it to me for my birthday that would be greatly appreciated.


**A/N: I wrote this as a prompt for my creative writing club. We had to make a short story that began with the sentence "I found her on the rooftop with a smile playing on his/her face." For some reason, that sentence gave me the mental picture I described in the first paragraph, and I just went from there.**

I found her on the rooftop with a smile playing on her face. She was wearing a T-shirt that used to be light purple, but it seemed to have faded to gray over time. Diana had paired it with crusty black fleece pajama pants with faded red dots on them. She was barefoot, and I could see her toes curled over the edge of the roof. Her arms were outstretched as if she were an airplane. Diana's eyes were closed and for the first time in months, she looked content, like she was enjoying a non-existent breeze. She couldn't jump. I wouldn't let her. It was official, she wasn't allowed to.

"GET DOWN FROM THERE!" I shouted. Then, less loudly but equally as forcefully, I repeated myself.

"Calm down, drama queen. I was just enjoying the view," she said.

"Your eyes were closed," I said.

"Really? I didn't notice," she joked.

I chuckled softly and used my telekinesis to slowly pull Diana back from the edge of the roof. It was just a few inches, nothing she would notice. Well, at least nothing I thought she would notice.

"Cut it out, I'm not going to fall," Diana groaned.

"How did you even notice that?" I asked.

"I have no idea! It's not like having an invisible hand of the force grab you by the ankle and drag you across shingles when you're barefoot hurts or anything!"

"Well, it probably hurts less than falling to your death."

"For the thousandth time, I wasn't going to fall. Why are you being so obnoxious about this?"

"Technically, this is only the second time you've had to say that."

"You dodged my second question."

"Well, I'm not going to answer because I'm not being obnoxious."

"You keep telling yourself that, Caine."

My heart skipped a beat when she started moving as if she was going to step over the edge, but luckily she was just sitting down. I stood silently in consideration for a few seconds before sitting down on her left. Diana didn't respond, just looked at me emotionlessly and rolled her eyes. We sat in silence for what seemed like forever, almost enjoying each other's company. Even starving and miserable, she looked gorgeous in the scarlet glow of the sunset.

"Be honest with me, were you going to jump?" I asked.

A giant sigh came barreling out of Diana's lungs with the slow force of skyscraper falling to the ground.

"I wasn't, Caine," she replied, "At least, I don't think I was. Originally, I had just come up here to clear my head. I needed to get away from you and your little minions, especially Penny. There's something not right with that girl."

"Of course not, she's a Coates kid."

"Yeah, but she's worse than most of them."

"How so?"

"I don't know, I can just tell that there's something about her. She looks at me like she'd pay a million dollars to put little scorpions in my ears."

"What did you just say?"

I could help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" Diana wondered.

"That whole scorpion thing was so weirdly specific. How do you come up with something like that?" I asked.

"Look at Penny's face next time I'm talking to her and you'll see."

We sat in silence for a few more seconds, just watching the sun drop below the horizon like it was a lethargic version of the New Year's Ball. My vision kept shifting from the sun to Diana and then back again. I really wanted to put my arm around her, but I wasn't sure if now was the right time. It almost seemed like the right time. For me, this was kind of romantic. However, Diana seemed to have a steadfast set of unwritten rules about when the right time was to do this kind of thing.

After a few minutes of consideration, I decided to go for it. I couldn't just sling my arm around her, though. I had to decide how I would execute it. It couldn't be too slow or too quick. I had to make it one flowing movement. Did this kind of thing have to be subtle? I've never been very good with subtle.

Suddenly, I realized that I had begun to chew on my thumb and pulled it out of my mouth. Then, I discreetly snaked my other arm over her shoulder. Diana turned her head to look at me. I couldn't exactly read the expression on her face, but I could tell that she wasn't happy. In the best case scenario, this was just the depressed version of her confused face. In the worst, she completely disapproved. Surprisingly enough, she didn't tell me to move my arm. She just looked ahead and leaned a closer to me. We sat in silence for a little bit longer before she spoke.

"Why are all of your best friends psychopaths who have it out for me?" she asked.

"I assume you're talking about Penny and Drake?" I replied.

"No, I'm talking about SpongeBob and Patrick. Of course I'm talking about Penny and Drake!"

"Well, then you'll be happy to know that I have never considered either of them friends, much less my best friends. Drake was probably the closest thing I've ever had, but that doesn't make him a friend. He was just my right hand man. Penny is even less than that. She's just replacement Drake."

"Because the first Drake worked out so well."

"You're right. He didn't."

"I'm what!?" Diana asked.

The shock on her face was almost funny. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was slightly agape, and her eyebrows were slanted upwards at angles I didn't know she was capable of.

"You're right," I repeated.

"Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend!?" Diana joked.

"I don't tell you that very much, do I?"

"I'm pretty sure this is the first time."

"Well, you are. Drake wasn't as great as I thought he was. He was too hard to control. Luckily, I won't have to be dealing with that anymore. Penny is a different kind of person. She wasn't a bully, like Drake. She was cripplingly shy. She's used to having more outgoing people telling her what to do. She won't be disobeying my orders any time soon."

Diana laughed quietly. It was such a soft, undetectable chuckle that most people would've mistaken it for the sounds her breathing out. I knew her too well to think that, though. I could tell that she was laughing from the way her body shook up against my side and the way she smirked. I wasn't loud, but she was definitely laughing.

"What's so funny?" I wondered.

"You're still the exact same guy you were on the very first day of the FAYZ. After all those crimes, everything that happened with that thing in the mine, and…you know what you still manage to be the Fearless Leader who promised us all fake salvation at one point or another."

"The island's not fake, Diana."

"BUG found it in a magazine. That makes it pretty fake."

"Hey, Bug reads a lot of magazines. I wouldn't doubt it if he found something useful in least one."

"I wouldn't doubt it either, if he read the kind of magazines that have any useful information in them whatsoever, but he doesn't."

"Well, I think they have interviews and stuff in those kinds of magazines."

"How would you know?"

"I wouldn't, I'm just taking an educated guess."

"And where did you get that education? Porn University?"

"No!"

"Calm down, I'm just messing with you."

"You're always just messing with me."

"Yeah, but you wish I was messing with you in another way, don't you?"

"No offense, but right now there's more important stuff on my mind."

"Like what?"

"Food."

"Then no offense taken. I feel the same way."

"Thanks a lot, now you have me thinking about food."

"How is this my fault? You were the one who brought up food. I just brought up sex, and if that directly makes you think of food than you, my friend, have a serious problem."

As the top of the sun began slipping out of sight, the world darkened and our moment fizzled away. It was as if Diana and I were the starring in our own TV show and the universe had just faded us to black. I stood up and offered her my hand. She accepted it, despite the fact that she probably didn't need me to lead her off of the roof since she had gotten up here all on her own.


End file.
